High Five!

I recently posted about Pho Tay Ho, a great Vietnamese restaurant in the SL,UT that specializes in Pho. It had been recommended to me by Twitter friends. I was also told to try Pho Green Papaya and have been there several times recently. Not only do they serve Pho, they have a full Vietnamese/Thai menu. The other day I went with friends Jessie, Kevin and Ryan. Everything we had was excellent.

Pho Green Papaya
2000 W 3500 S

Cà phê s?a nóng - My favorite coffee! If you haven't had Vietnamese coffee, you've got to try it!

Appetizers: Dumpling Chiên (Pork), Goi Cuon (Fresh spring rolls), Tôm Chiên (Shrimp rolls), Thit Nu'o'ng (Pork skewers)

Steak and lean brisket Pho

Singha is a great Thai beer, but don't be afraid to try Hue a Vietnamese beer.

Finish up with one of my favorites...Sweet mango over coconut sticky rice!

I’ve had some pretty good food recently, so I figured I’d recommend a few things to you.

Beerhive Pub
128 S. Main St.
If you like German food and beer, this is the place for you. I actually wanted to try some of their handmade sausages, but the sausage machine was broken that night. I had the Chicken Roladen instead and was not disappointed. I loved the spatzle and the blaukraut reminded me of the Danish red cabbage my mom makes. The beer menu is large and they also have a full bar. The only downfall would be parking, because it is downtown. Plan to park and walk a bit or even better, take Trax.

Free-range chicken stuffed with speck and gruyere cheese, topped with a rich mushroom cream sauce and served with spatzle and blaukraut. Beer: Pyramid Hefeweizen.

Coffee Garden
878 E 900 S
Coffee Garden has been a favorite of mine for a while. I love their hot coffees, especially the latte, but their iced/frozen coffees leave a lot to be desired. The cupcakes are always unusual and delish. The 9th and 9th location is great, especially since Cahoots is right next door. After this trip I stopped in at Cahoots and got the most awesome SL,UT and Salt Lake temple shot glasses! They also carry SL,UT t-shirts, which I must get one of these days.

Red chai cupcake and Latte

Diva’s Cupcakes and Coffee
1560 E 3300 S
The only place better for coffee than Coffee Garden is Diva’s and now they also serve beer and wine. I’ve never had any of their food items, but the quiche and soups look fantastic. The coffee is incredible and the cupcakes are TO. DIE. FOR! And yes, cupcakes do go quite well with a good Pinot Grigio or Cabernet Sauvignon Rose.

Cupcakes and Wine

Mimi’s Cafe
5223 S State St
The only reason I went here was because I heard about the fried pickles. Something I used to get in Georgia. We only ordered the pickles and fried cheese, but were great.

Fried Pickles, fried cheese and Pinot Grigio

1. Glitter in the Air – P!nk
2. Russian Roulette – Rhianna
3. And So It Goes – Billy Joel
4. Crash Into Me – Dave Matthews Band (Live at Radio City version)
5. Louisiana Sunday Afternoon – Diane Schuur
6. Hurt – Christina Aguilera
7. Mr. Brightside – The Killers
8. Welcome to the Black Parade – My Chemical Romance
9. I Want You to Want Me – Letters to Cleo
10. Blackbird – Sarah McLachlan
11. Ride Wit Me – Nelly
12. Rhapsody on the Theme of Paganin – Sergei Rachmaninoff
13. Don’t Stop Me Now – Queen
14. Rude Boy – Rhianna
15. No You Girls – Franz Ferdinand
16. Suddenly I See – KT Tunstall
17. Kids – MGMT
18. What You Waiting For – Gwen Stephani
19. Sexy Bitch – David Guetta
20. Canon in D Major – Pachelbel
21. Love Remains The Same – Gavin Rossdale
22. Con Te Partiro – Andrea Bocelli
23. Comin’ Home Baby – Michael Buble
24. Don’t Fear The Reaper – Blue Oyster Cult
25. The Pretender – Foo Fighters

Look what I got in the mail yesterday! It’s beautiful!
It is also taking all of my energy to restrain myself from driving to the airport and taking the first possible international flight out of here.
And never stop.

Is this Axe bottle for real?
Why yes, yes it is and it’s kind of amusing.
But is it true?
If anyone knows…leave me a comment!
Gotta love the illustration!

PS – Dirty boys can be awfully sexy. But, that’s just my opinion. Then again, it’s really fun to get a dirty boy clean too.

This past weekend I got a new tattoo at the Salt Lake Tattoo Convention. I found an incredible artist named Coral from Rebirth Tattoo of Anchorage, AK. This is the first tat I’ve had drawn on free hand (the others have used stencils). Coral is so very talented and did an amazing job. I was also lucky enough to have two friends with me, both photographers, who took some great pictures. Thanks Jessie (@kittygutz) and Sol y Sombra (@solysombra)

Coral drawing the design on my back.

Using my necklace as a guide to include an Om in the design.

Working on the outline.

A little bit red and irritated, but done!

Every tattoo has a meaning. This one is no exception. So why did I choose this design?

The lotus flower is the symbol of rebirth, awakening, strength and perseverance. It starts as a small bud down at the bottom of a pond in the mud and muck. It slowly grows its strong stem up towards the waters surface, continually moving towards the light. Once it comes to the surface of the water the flower begins to blossom into a life of great beauty. People also grow and change into something more beautiful (hopefully!)

You can’t see it very well in these pics, but the over all color of the flower is done in gray tones with a hint of periwinkle blue within the shading of the petals. A blue lotus is a symbol of the victory of the spirit over the senses, and signifies the wisdom of knowledge.

The Om (or Aum) symbol ghosted onto the lowest petal has many meanings. According to the Mandukya Upanishad, “Om is the one eternal syllable of which all that exists is but the development. The past, the present, and the future are all included in this one sound, and all that exists beyond the three forms of time is also implied in it”.

~ Anais Nin ~

Another item crossed off my FuckIt List!

I’ve got a lot to say.
I’m about to explode.
Once again…I can not.

Waiting.
Impatiently.
(taps fingers)

But, still have to wait.
Until…

Fuck!
Hurry up.

I need this to be done.

Stupid self imposed gag order.

I’m still busy.
Sorry.

Have you seen my effing schedule? It’s pretty intense. Every morning I pull up my calendar to see what I have going on for the day. Then I have a myocardial infarction and pass out on the floor for a few minutes. Eventually, I come to, snap out of it and get on with my day.

This semester is a bitch. I haven’t made it MY bitch yet, but trust me, I will! I’ve got Business 1050, English 1010, Math 0990 (yes, that is dummy math and still doesn’t even count towards my degree!) and Chinese 1020. The business and English classes are easy, but somewhat time consuming. Math is kicking my ass and I feel like I am not putting enough time into my Chinese. This doesn’t even take into account my regular life stuff.

The pressure is slightly crushing at times.

There’s this stupid fun thing going around Facebook lately. People are putting a note in their status to go to www.urbandictionary.com and type in your first name, then post what you get. Since I should be doing homework, but am trying to avoid it I have nothing better to do at the moment, I figured what the hell…

1. A strong name for a strong woman. A Sandra, especially one born under the star (sun) sign of Aries tends to be intelligent, witty, extremely open, honest & passionate and will do whatever it takes to uphold her morals. While these are extremely admirable traits, they also mean that they should never be crossed. Hope you are paying attention, you have been warned!!
On the flipside, if you do the right thing (and why wouldn’t you?) a Sandra will go out of her way to make your life beautiful.
While fiercely independent, a Sandra has both a strong sense of community and family and will do whatever it takes (regardless of personal cost) to defend and protect those that she cares about.
Do yourself a favour – find a Sandra; stocks are limited and they are (rightly so) in high demand.
Need a friend? Look no further than Sandra.

This pretty much sums it up, although I am not an Aries, but rather a Gemini, which just doubles everything. Also, the morals part is pretty much laughable accurate. Crossing me is definitely not advisable, that is where the Gemini thing really comes into play, evil twin and all…and you have been warned.

To be fair, there are a total of 12 totally made up definitions for the name Sandra. Several that reference Queen (hello!, I’ve been telling you people this forever!) and even one that says, “Yellin babyslingin baseball superstar salesqueen who everyone likes.”, that makes absolutely no sense at all. I’m going to go ahead and completely ignore the one that says, “a girl usually refered to as a slut and a triphlin hoe”, because obviously whoever put that one in there can’t be trusted if they can’t even spell “trifling ho” correctly. Insults must be spelled right…get your shit together people!

You weren’t there, you never were
You want it all, but that’s not fair
I gave you life, I gave my all
You weren’t there, you let me fall

I’m alright, I’m just fine and you’re a tool
So, so what, I am a rock star
I got my rock moves and I don’t want you tonight (…or ever)

Thanks, P!nk